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Matthew 28:13 · World English Bible

Matthew 28:13 Meaning Saying

saying, “Say that his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.

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What does Matthew 28:13 mean?

When life itself has broken through, the mind that fears it does not argue; it invents a story to cover what it cannot bear to see. Here is the ego at its most revealing, paying to have the resurrection explained away, insisting that what rose was merely stolen while no one watched.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Matthew 28:13 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

When life itself has broken through, the mind that fears it does not argue; it invents a story to cover what it cannot bear to see. Here is the ego at its most revealing, paying to have the resurrection explained away, insisting that what rose was merely stolen while no one watched. Fear cannot deny the light, so it fashions a smaller tale in which nothing truly changed.

The sleep in this account is the confession it does not mean to make. The mind that would explain away its own awakening is the mind still asleep, choosing a comfortable rumor over the astonishing fact that death was undone. A mind can stop guarding the tomb and open its eyes. What it fears has already happened, and only the story keeps it from seeing.

Night: the darkened perception that prefers a hidden explanation to the plain sight of what is real Tomb: the belief in death that the mind stands watch over, guarding an emptiness it has mistaken for the truth

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Matthew 28:13 today

  1. When something unexpectedly good happens and you immediately start explaining it away as luck or a fluke, catch that sentence and let it go unfinished. Try just saying the good thing happened, with no footnote.
  2. When a friend tells you something hopeful and you feel the urge to add a realistic caveat, hold it back. Let their good news stand in the room without your caution on top of it.
  3. When a tense situation resolves better than you feared, resist the retelling that keeps your worry intact. Say plainly to whoever asks that it worked out, and let that be the whole story.

What have you been explaining away so you don't have to let it change you?

The same truth in other traditions

Zen

The teachers say we live inside explanations and call it seeing. The story about the moment is always smaller and safer than the moment itself.

Hinduism · Upanishads

The sleeper dreams a whole world and is certain of it until waking. The dream is not broken by argument, only by opening the eyes.

Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius

He kept telling himself to strip a thing of the commentary wrapped around it and look at what is actually there. Most of our suffering lives in the account, not the event.

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